OK - I'll re-phrase my response. It's not a real method through which our oneness with the Divine can be truly realized. This refering to 'paths' is only a metaphor obviously.
No! God is Sattvic, pure and untainted by the worldly materialism. He is not reached by artificial means like drugs , alcohol or anything like that. He is reached with love and to love God you need to be completely sore. You have to be free of alcohol, free of drugs, free of sex desire, free of everything. If we are not free, we are bound and we ask God to free us and we do that by turning sattvic, not deluding ourselves with tamasic qualities. Shastra is what needs to be followed not some one's whims , you cannot reach God by deluding yourself with worldly things, we have to strive to depend on God and dharma (duty). There are set paths to love God like karma yoga- love God through your actions... these are all described to us in Bhagavad Gita and other scriptures - which are then explained by great saints like Shankaracharya , Ramanuja and Madvacharya. You can't just act on your whims.
Poor souls delude themselves... I think those things were first established to get free of sex desire or to control it in some way... I guess later on , people who decided to go on these paths wanted to enjoy sex more than they desired to be free from it. Its nothing more than a way to find more pleasure from the senses, I don't think it has anything to do with spirituality or the divine.
If such differences are based in knowledge then they are beautiful, anything based in ignorance and stupidity whether "differences or sameness" is very ugly.
In Hamsa Geeta, Sri Krishna's teaching to Sanatakumars, he explains that all three gunas, sattva, rajas and tamas, are colors of the mind, which need to be removed. By rajas, we conquer tamas and by sattva we conquer rajas. When the mind is rid of rajas and tamas, and becomes purely sattvic, then that sattva also sublimates and the mind is free from all conditioning. The example Sri Krishna gives is of the forest fire. The trees of rajas and tamas are burnt down by the forest fire of sattva, which then extinguishes itself.
“The gunas cannot really reach where Brahman abides. They are like robbers who cannot go out in the open. They are afraid lest they should be arrested. Sattva, rajas and tamas all the three gunas are robbers. Let me tell you a story: “Once a man was going through a forest when three robbers came and caught hold of him. They robbed him of all he possessed. One of the robbers said, ‘Why keep this man alive now?’ Saying so, he came forward with a sword to hack him. The second robber then said, ‘No brother, what use killing him? Let us tie his hands and feet and leave him here.’ Then tying his hands and feet the robbers left him there and went away. After a while one of them returned and said, ‘Ah! you are suffering a lot! Let me free you from the knots.’ Untying his bonds he said, ‘Come with me, I will take you to the main road.’ After a long time when they reached the main road, the robber said, ‘Take this road. See that is your house.’ This man then said to the robber, ‘Sir, you have been very good to me. Please come with me to my house.’ The robber said, ‘No, I cannot go there. The police will come to know of it.’ “The world itself is a forest. In this forest sattva, rajas and tamas all the three gunas are robbers. They rob the jiva of his tattva jnana (spiritual knowledge). Tamoguna destroys the jiva, rajoguna binds him to the world. But the sattvaguna saves him from rajas and tamas. By taking refuge in sattvaguna one is saved from lust, anger and such other evils of tamas. Besides, sattvaguna cuts asunder the bonds of the world also. But even the sattvaguna is a robber, it cannot give the tattva jnana (highest knowledge). However, it puts you on the road to the Supreme Abode. Putting you on the road it says, ‘Just see, this is your house.’ Sattvaguna remains at a great distance from the Brahmajnana. “What Brahman is cannot be expressed by the word of mouth. He who attains Brahman, cannot give information about Him. There is a saying, ‘The ship never returns once it has reached the black waters.’ Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa.
nice post BlackBillBlake, also like this passage from Nisargadatta Maharaj In the great mirror of consciousness images arise and disappear and only memory gives them continuity. And memory is material -- destructible, perishable, transient. On such flimsy foundations we build a sense of personal existence -- vague, intermittent, dreamlike. This vague persuasion: 'I-am-so-and-so' obscures the changeless state of pure awareness and makes us believe that we are born to suffer and to die.
When I was in india(northern ganges area) I found alot of people were smoking. Smoking what, I don't know but I remember, though it was a long time ago, were sadu's mixing tobacco and weed together and offering it to me. boy, was that a trip to hang out with them. they are truely great and help me aspire to something more withen myself. So they can do what they dam well please and if they want to smoke or break thier arms off I don't care. jahbless mike
Just a correction of some info. posted earlier by someone... Vegetarianism came about in India because during the more rural, nomadic, tribal times it wasn't easy to keep meat fresh because of the hot climate of India. So Hinduism just kinda adapted to it. It didn't come about when Buddhism came about. Since Buddhism was based off of Hinduism, it naturally kept certain features of Hinduism. Now, about the cows. Many Hindus see a cow as a mother because after we stop breast-feeding from our mothers we get our milk from cows. Cows are also thought to embody the Shakti (female spirit, or goddess). The only way that a cow is related to Shiva is that Nandi (the bull) is Shiva's mount, like a horse.
